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THE ULTIMATE APPLE CAKE

For someone who’d rather go to the dentist than bake a cake, making the same cake two weeks in a row means:

– the cake is fool-proof;

– the cake is awesome.

Awesome indeed! It’s a bunch of diced apples surrounded by a few dollops of cake batter, that puffs and gently envelopes each piece of fruit, resulting in a dessert that’s a cross between cake and clafoutis. Very French, very elegant, just enough decadence to turn your afternoon tea into a four-star event.

The recipe comes from a cookbook that’s been on my wish list at amazon.com since it’s released: Dorie Greenspan‘s Around my French Table. It’s just a matter of time until I move the book to my shopping cart, the reviews are stellar!

Heat the oven to 350F. Butter a 8-inch springform type pan with butter and set aside.

Peel and core the apples, cut them roughly in 1 inch chunks. Reserve.

In a small bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl, beat the eggs with a whisker until frothy, add the sugar and whisk until smooth.
Add the rum, vanilla extract, and mix well. Add half of the flour mixture, mix until fully incorporated, pour half of the butter and whisk to combine. Add the rest of the flour, then the rest of the butter.

Pour the thick batter over the apples, and use a silicone or plastic spatula to mix them gently, trying to cover each piece with some of the batter. The mixture will seem too thick, and you will be tempted to use less apples. Do not. Trust Dorie. Pour the mixture in the prepared pan, use a fork to level the apples as much as possible, but don’t worry too much about it.

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until golden and a cake tester comes out clean when inserted at the center of the cake. Remove the pan to a rack and let it cool for 5 minutes before opening the sides.

Comments: The first time I baked this cake, I didn’t use all the apples because it seemed impossible to coat them all with the batter. I realized my mistake when I witnessed how much the batter puffed up during baking. On my second attempt, I used all the apples, and substituted apple schnapps for rum. We both liked the schnapps version better. A friend of mine used Calvados and also preferred it to rum. Either of those liquors reinforce the apple flavor. Next time I might add a little cinnamon to the batter, but this cake is pretty close to perfection as it is.

Sally, what a great looking cake and thanks for the review. I also have the book on a wish list and I really don’t like baking so it is good to see you making the effort, I’m inspired, just for this cake.

Oh great, this after I went and bought a $6 vanilla bean to use in another apple dessert for our Grey Cup Sunday. When is it really worth using the bean instead of good quality extract?
Bet this is an awesome breakfast dish!

I am back in Oklahoma now, but without net-connections at home, so I have very limited time to devote to the internet until we fly back to LA on Tuesday

I corrected the horrible typo – yeah, what was I thinking? 3/4 cup of baking powder is enough to explode the house! 😉 – but won’t be able to work on the printable version until tomorrow when I come back to the lab

I’ve baked this cake twice now . It’s so easy and I had the apples on hand. First thing it describes the batter as very thick, mine wasn’t thick at all.more like a pancake batter.also the baking time is way off .. Is the current recipe the correct one?

Yes, recipe works well for me, I’ve made it at least six times… perhaps a difference between flours? The other day I baked a bread with the only brand of bread flour I could find, and my dough behaved very very oddly. SO maybe that could explain what happened to you?

I don’t know what went wrong. I have Celiac so switched the flour to gluten free but that usually isn’t an issue. My cake tasted like rum and nothing else. Could it be because I only had spiced rum in the house? Did anyone else use dark rum?
I am so disappointed. 😦

the other thing I thought is that this cake has such a high ratio of apples to batter, that it’s important that the batter “puffs up” exactly as it should, otherwise it won’t be the same. Maybe in this type of cake some adjustments must be made when using a flour different from all purpose? Since I got your message last night, I searched around the net but could not find anyone reporting a similar problem, or using non-gluten flour, so I cannot be of much help… sorry!

HI Sally, hey that looks great, I am working my way through all sorts of different apple cake recipes at the moment and now there is yet another one. Still hoping that US baking writers will just put either ounces or grams in their recipes for us Europeans. I asked Dorrie Greenspan once if she would but she said no. One of the frustrations in buying cookbooks on Amazon uk is that the publishers never say in their blurbs, ingredients in cups only, and it’s only when you get the book that you realize.

Anita, you should use vanilla bean paste/puree. It is far less expensive than a vanilla bean and just as good. I have ordered it from Cooks Vanilla, but they have gone up in price, and it is real expensive now whereas it wasn’t before. I buy the vanilla bean paste/puree from The Fresh Market here in Chattanooga, Tennessee. About $7.00 or $8.00 a bottle which lasts a long, long time! And, no shipping. Cooks charged me nearly $8.00 shipping!!

So I know this is an older post but it popped up and since I just blogged about apples – thought I’d take a look. Love the rum addition and think that a bit of honey would work well too. I might just need to give this a try. Have a great weekend Sally!

Sally, I am sure this is a very delicious cake and I am interested in trying it, however, I do not have rum or any apple flavored liquor in my house and I will not go out and buy some just for this cake as I do not like the taste of liquors in food. I do not drink alcohol or use alcohol at all. Do you have any suggestions or do you think it will taste okay without using that?

Mary, I think you can get by with any round pan. The spring pan is nice for the presentation, once you open the sides it looks very nice… but, come to think of it, this is such a traditional recipe, probably around for generations in France. They did not have spring pans, and I am sure that did not stop them from enjoying this! 😉 I would probably add a parchment paper in the bottom of the pan, and then simply cut slices as you would in a normal cake pan…. Hope you try it!

Yes I agree, I have been using Cuban rum and now have Jamaican rum. I don’t see a problem using Bacardi Rum…I have some too and will try it next time. I think I’ve made this cake over 50 times for sure. It’s the best!

Patricia, I would look for a clafoutis recipe, in fact, maybe this one would work but I would hate to give you advice if I’m not 100% sure. I know clafoutis can be tricky, and if the balance between fruit and batter is not right, you end up with less than stellar results. It is true that this recipe produces something very similar in texture…. so who knows? It might just work perfectly well… there, no help at all from me 😉 Please let me know if you do try it…

I would not use rum extract….it would be too strong of a taste. The cake really doesn’t have a taste of rum. If omitting rum I would use apple juice as suggested by Sally or nothing at all. I think I have to make another one this weekend….I have been hinted to…..

I just made the cake, and have some comments. First, I might have used larger apples, but I think less apples would have been fine. Next, loved the idea that it wasn’t that sweet, but think it might have benefited from a big dollop of ice cream or whipped cream…just me. In fact, I like plain cream on my cobblers, and this tasted like an apple cobbler to me. Very good, will definitely make it again.

Sally, I had a blast exploring your blog for Secret Recipe Club this month, and finally settled on making this cake. Am I ever glad…it is fantastic! I followed in your footsteps and made it twice in one week. Here’s what I posted, in case you’d like to take a look: http://www.shockinglydelicious.com/the-ultimate-apple-spice-cake/

hi, Gaye… me again…. I searched the net a little bit and I don’t see any remarks about freezing the cake. It is said to be best stored at room temperature and not covered. My feeling is that you are better off not freezing it…

Sallybr, I had the distinct pleasure of making and sharing this cake after you featured it in June’s IMK. (Enjoy the hiatus until September — and keep baking cakes!) Everybody LOVED it! Thanks, xo.
P.S. Coongrats on your 7 year blog birthday — your Red Velvet cake looks fanstastic, too!

I’ve seen people substitute oil for butter in boxed cake mixes, but did not find any comments about this specific cake. Butter contains water, whereas oil doesn’t – you might want to compensate for that, maybe using some applesauce as part of the volume of oil? Honestly I don’t know if it would work – butter has such a nice taste for a cake like this, which is so perfect…

I tend to be a wimp when it comes to changing cake recipes because…. I AM a cake-o-phobe of sorts… but you definitely seem like a brave baker, so maybe you should give it a try? If you do, please let me know….

I would LOVE to make this cake, but in Europe we don’t use cups! I’ve tried using conversion tables but it never seems to work! Now we live in a global society, could you also put your measurements in grams? All it needs it for you to take a cup of flour and weigh it!! And a stick of butter? We don’t have those either 😦
Thanks

I feel your pain, and will be more careful about it in the future. Blogging is my hobby, so I don’t really have the time, energy and will power to go back and take care of seven years of recipes, especially when there are so many sources online to convert cups to grams. For instance this one is very good https://www.leaf.tv/articles/cup-to-gram-conversions/ As to the butter, 1 stick of US butter is 1/2 cup, which as the site states converts to 114g… hope this helps, and definitely go make this cake, it is WONDERFUL and worth the extra trouble to get the metric measurments… 😉

Hi there and thanks for your quick reply! I’ve been looking at conversion sites too, but they are all a bit different! I was recommended a good one and a stick of butter is 110g!! I know it’s only slightly different to yours (114g), but if each ingredient is slightly out the cake won’t work! I did try this cake but it seemed an awful lot of sugar (150g) to flour (90g) – with the conversion table. It really needs the recipe to be tried and measuring the ingredients in metric along the way! Impossible for 7 years of recipes, but maybe for the new ones. We Europeans find it so frustrating when we see so many wonderful recipes on US websites …. and then our hearts sink when we see the words “cup” or “stick”!!! Anyway, the cake was quite nice so I might keep “tweaking” the recipe until it comes out right.
Thanks for the conversion table – I WILL keep trying your recipes!

DONE! I added the info to the recipe on the site. Did not remake the PDF, but maybe that can get you going? 😉

plus, it gave me the opportunity to bring the cake to the department and everyone is happy…. (I do think measuring the baking powder with the teaspoon is easier, depending on the type of scale you have).

Hi and thank you so much!! I have tried the cake and it’s wonderful!!
BTW, we use spoon measures in Europe, too, it’s only sticks and cups we have trouble with – I once remember trying to squash a load of soft butter into a cup and thinking “there must be an easier way to do this”!!!
Thanks again for your time and help – this cake could become a regular favourite!

Hi there, has anyone tried doubling the ingredients to make a bigger cake? With some recipes it works and others (for some unknown reason!) it doesn’t. I think this one could work, though, so I’m going to try it. Any suggestions?

It certainly didnt come out the same height as the picture. my rose only an inch in the spring foam pan that is with the corresponding baking powder amount listed in your directions. Not moist at all. Too many apples and too thick of a batter. needed more spice and liquid added along with more baking powder for it to rise better and be more moist along with less apples . Sorry but not “Ultimate” at all

THat is really odd, it is one of the recipes that most people rave about, and you can check it in other sites even. Well, I am sorry it did not work for you, I am puzzled. I’ve made it about six times ever since I blogged and never had a problem

I made this for Easter dessert today. A big hit and other than peeling & coring the apples, the easiest cake I’ve made. Looking forward to trying other recipes from the cookbook author. I very much appreciate and enjoy your cookbook reviews as I would not have known about this recipe, or Dorie, or other authors. I enjoy reading cookbooks and watching cooking shows but I’m much more motivated to cook a recipe from a cookbook when a home cook has tried it and reviewed it first.

I love this recipe. I’ve made it at least three times since Christmas, maybe more, and I’ve been experimenting with different alcohols. So far, I’ve tried apple Crown Royal, apple Jack Daniels and most recently some cheaper, knock off version of the Crown Royal that the guy at the liquor store suggested. It was okay, but I think the Crown has been the best. I’d like to try it with schnapps, though. So simple and easy!!

Just stuck mine in the oven! My son had apple bourbon whiskey that he wanted me to try baking something with-the batter tasted delicious-I did add cinnamon to the flour. Even bought a new cake stand to photograph it!

I made this cake today using half Granny Smiths & Pink Lady apples. My last cake I made with just Grannies and didn’t like it as much as this combination. I had an issue with my scales which died in the middle of it. I prefer to go by weights. Never mind my guys gobbled up two pieces each and the dog showed she loved it by jumping up 4 times when I asked if she loved it 😉 I did add the cinnamon in it and sprinkled a little with sugar on top. Since I had Grand Marnier I just used 1 tablespoon of that as I read it’s fine in fruit cakes.It was great but when I make it again am going for an apple liqueur.